The present invention relates to a lightweight embankment and more particularly to the technique of constructing an embankment of this kind.
Conventional road embankments are constructed from excavated materials with a density around 2,000 kg/m.sup.3.
In some cases, to deal with specific problems (compressible soils, unstable slopes, etc) it is beneficial to use lighter materials.
This is why many embankments have been constructed in recent years with construction blocks made from extremely light materials having a density that is typically between about 20 kg/m.sup.3 and about 60 kg/m.sup.3, for example expanded polystyrene or some other ultra-lightweight cellular structure high-grade plastics material. The technique currently employed typically consists in stacking contiguously blocks of EC or EM grade polystyrene in accordance with a French standard imposing a density between 19 kg/m.sup.3 and 20 kg/m.sup.3.
However, these blocks made from high-grade materials produced by the chemicals industry are very costly and the current technique requires a considerable quantity of construction blocks.